About Us

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Search For Staffs

Okay folks, you have to help me:

I'm asking for help on the ongoing search for the best 6-ft-staff fights in film. I don't mean 9-foot bendy staffs from China, and I don't mean 3-foot canes. I mean rokushaku-bo fights. They're hard to find on film. Here are a few (a very few) that I use in a pinch:

Robin Hood, Men in Tights: same. Especially after seeing a "classic" Robin-Little John staff fight, this one is hilarious, especially when their staffs break so small they have to thwack each other on their knuckles with them.

Swords of Lankhmar: Fafhrd vs. Lukeen. Awesome on-ship action, and great trash-talk: "Art ready to double-kiss the oak? First my staff, then the deck?" ... Except this is from a work of fiction, not film. :sigh:

Okay, all you Stage Combatants and martial artists and both: I beseech you: help me find good, professional, 6-foot-staff fights. I do love my students' finals, but they're not (unfortunately) professional. So help!

~Jenn

This is Hannah and Roberto. Don't they rock? From MSCD Stage Combat, 2007.

1 comment:

Ken made a comment on the Class 6/12 post about Darth Maul's double-ended lightsaber being sort of a staff fight.

I'm not sure I'd count it, because of two reasons: one, it's got blades, and staffs don't have blades. Well, if they do, they're a different weapon (naginata...). Two, he can only hold it in the middle. He can't slide it around in his hands like a good staff fighter does.